Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as follow-up to my Member's statement on trapping season I would like to ask the Minister responsible for ENR if he could share the numbers. You know what, many of us here have Facebook accounts, and we see all of the nice pictures people put on, whether it's trapping, hunting, but I have seen in my riding a number of young people starting to get into trapping. So can the Minister share numbers from the last trapping season on the number of trappers, if they have seen an increase or a decrease? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from November 2017 to June 2018, which is basically the trapping season, there were 661 trappers in the Northwest Territories. They marketed about $622,000 of Northern fur for that particular year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know many of my constituents, especially the ones who go out, bring in a lot of furs. I just have a question. I would like to get an update on the uptake on the Grubstake Program. I know this Territory is a leader that is pretty much the only territory -- none of the provinces that I know of have a grubstake program similar to ours. Just a little update from the Minister on that program?
As far as I know, we are the only jurisdiction in the country that offers a grubstake program as far as traditional fur harvesting goes, and we are quite proud of that fact. We recognize the fact that it is an important economy in the Northwest Territories. The Member is absolutely correct. We are starting to see more and more young people get back into the traditional lifestyle. We are getting a lot of support from the government.
As well, I know of a couple of Aboriginal governments, I think the GTC has a great program where they support the young people who are trying to get back into trapping.
Trap and Grubstake Program allocated a total of $101,000 for the current 2018-2019 trapping year. We have it broken down by regions, as well. I think in the BeauDel last year, there was about $34,000 that was allocated through the Grubstake Program.
The department has started a new initiative in the Mackenzie Delta, especially in Aklavik-Inuvik, with harvesting of beaver this past spring here. It was very, very productive. You know, the community has seen over $100,000 brought into the community of Aklavik alone; the communities that were a part of this. It wasn't cash into the communities, but it was money that went into cards, whether it was to the local Northern store. On that note, on-the-land collaborative, how many projects and how was this paid out?
The program that the Member spoke about, I think I was in collaboration with the Aboriginal governments up there. I think IRC was heavily involved in that. My understanding was fairly successful program. As far as the on-the-land collaborative, we received a number of applications, I think it was about 104 applications, but 48 projects were approved. Approximately $1 million was dispersed to support on-the-land programming.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a final run on this topic. I know in the past, even myself, I have attended a couple of trapping workshops. You know, it is always good to show our up-and-coming trappers new techniques and ways to set traps. Does the department plan to hold any more trapping workshops this winter?
I know a number of people have been asking about how to get traps in communities, especially the ones that don't have any hardware stores or anywhere to get them actually in town. Is the department planning to have any trapping workshops this winter? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As far as the actual workshops, I am not quite sure of that detail. I will commit to getting that detail to see when and where we are having any workshops that are going out. I think the department is also coming forward to this Assembly, I believe, soon with the new initiative that they would like to try. I will not speak of it now, but it will be brought up before this Assembly as we deliberate the O and M budget during February-March. I think the folks out there will be pleased with the new initiatives that are coming out through ENR.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
